Ho Ho Ho, now I have a machine gun

Every year we like to remember the man who nearly died for our sins on several occasions.

The bald man with the vest, who every year brings us tidings of joy and the dispatching of bad people. I’m talking of course about John McClane, who visits our homes every Christmas due to the perpetual screenings of Die Hard.

So in this spirit of Christmas, I’d like to just relive some of the efforts of the games I remember that have tried to capture the essence of McClane’s adventures…

Die Hard Arcade, 1996

Ahh Die Hard Arcade. It holds a special place in my heart as it was the original arcade machine game that the UCHG painstakingly restored back to life. Bit of an odd one though this one, it’s not really Die Hard at all – in actual fact it is Dynamite Deka, a Japanese beat em up hastily given the Die Hard license to help it sell.

Pretty damn good fun though – it’s like Streets of Rage but in 3D. 2-player coop action, tons of weapons, hilarious fights, all in all it’s a blast. If you make it to the end with both players still alive, you have to fight eachother, Double Dragon style.

There was a sequel too: Dynamite Cop (or Dynamite Deka 2), was released for arcades and Dreamcast in 1998 without the Die Hard license.

Die Hard Trilogy, 1996

What is it with 1996 and Die Hard games? A year after the 3rd movie, it was probably fresh in people’s minds. I remember this one most because it was on an early PS1 demo disc.

Die Hard Trilogy is what it suggests, 3 games based on the 3 movies in the series: a 3rd person shooter in Nakatomi Plaza; an ‘on-rails shooter’ (a bit like Time Crisis) in an airport for Die Hard 2: Die Harder; and a driving game for Die Hard: With a Vengeance to blow up bombs with your taxi.

They’ll all pretty damn basic games, there’s not even a suggestion of a story, and they’ve all seriously dated, but they’re still lots of fun.

Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza, 2002

Why release a Die Hard game 14 years after the movie? Who knows. But this is actually the closest to the film out of all of these here – they even got one of the original actors back for it (hint – it wasn’t Bruce Willis or Alan Rickman). The story and memorable lines are there as you remember, with a few bits of extra padding of course – even the classic ending shot of Rickman falling of the roof.

Terrible AI, awful weapons, boring corridors – but weirdly I enjoy it. Something about it still says Die Hard to me – whether it’s the presence of the Zippo lighter, throwing bad guys off roofs. You even hold the gun lefthanded like Brucie. This actually feels like you’re in Nakatomi Plaza, and for me that’s a win.

Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!

So that’s my Die Hard roundup. There have been a few more besides, but these are the ones that I recall most fondly. If you have your own favourites for Christmas, let us know in the comments.